Bob Dylan

30'' W x 40'' L

I’m painting the face of Bob Dylan as I listen to the words from a poem he wrote for Woody Guthrie. The recording is captured in his Bootleg Series from a performance on April 12,1963 at New York City’s Town Hall. Words written to honor his friend are echoing off this canvas and filling up the room with color I’ve yet to paint. 

 In the Last Words On Woody Guthrie, Dylan poses questions we all should be asking:
“Who am I helping, what am I breaking. What am I giving, what am I taking.”

When Bob Dylan first heard Woody Guthrie’s voice on a scratchy record, he said something inside of him cracked open. Guthrie sang about the forgotten, the wanderers, the hardworking men and women. From folk ballads to children’s songs, he wrote about political themes and social injustice. And Dylan wanted to follow that sound wherever it led. It was the sound of freedom and it led him to New York City.

Dylan left his home in Hibbing, Minnesota with an old beat-up guitar, a notebook, and a belief that his voice could echo Woody Guthrie’s.  He rode buses, slept on floors, and played for dimes in smoky Greenwich Village cafés. He sang about what others were too afraid to say. Hope always hiding in the melodies. Truth shining in every verse. 

He found Woody Guthrie dying in Brooklyn State Hospital. Dylan sang him songs of politics, stories of protest, and a promise of peace to come. Some say Bob Dylan picked up the torch that Wood Guthrie had laid down. But I think Dylan just picked up that old guitar again and again–knowing that the real fire burned from inside of him and shined light through lyrics.

Woody is long gone, but 62 years later Dylan’s words are still alive and well for those of us still learning to listen. Still willing to ask the questions. Still willing to write the songs and paint the pictures. 

When the melodies fade and the paint dries, the questions still remain. I hope we make the time to answer them. Because Bob has always known what we tend to forget: the times are still a-changin’. And it is up to each of us to keep the flame alive and light the way.